Pressure mounts to control encampments of homeless
With old methods failing, California cities take new steps to limit living on the streets
After years of failed policy, California cities are trying new — sometimes controversial — strategies to get a handle on homeless encampments that have grown out of control during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sacramento’s mayor has proposed giving residents a right to housing and shelter, while also forcing homeless people to accept the accommodations they’re offered.
In Los Angeles, where attempts to clear an encampment from a prominent park recently led to a police showdown, the City Council is moving forward with a new plan to make certain areas offlimits for camping. Bay Area cities including San Jose, Santa Cruz, Novato and San Rafael, instead of continuing to haphazardly clear camps on a case-by-case basis, also recently adopted rules to
dictate where encampments can and can’t be.
“It’s a unique time,” said San Rafael Mayor Kate Colin, whose city opened Marin County’s first sanctioned homeless encampment this month. “The pandemic has shifted the landscape for so many things. This is the time to try something new.”
But some of those new approaches have created pushback from activists who argue they leave people with nowhere to go, and that with few shelter beds or housing options available, large encampments help residents build community, feel safe and access donations — and should be allowed to stay.
Homelessness has been a major problem in California for years. But during the COVID-19 crisis, when federal health guidelines discouraged clearing encampments and scattering residents who should be sheltering in place, camps grew unchecked into tent cities and shantytowns on a scale many cities had never seen.
Now that the economy has reopened and Californians are venturing back out for work and play, officials are under mounting
pressure to remove camps that have taken over public spaces, while also finding humane places for people to live.
It’s estimated there are at least 113,660 Californians sleeping in encampments or other outdoor locations. That’s more than half of the country’s entire population of unsheltered homeless residents. And though many of this year’s homeless census counts were suspended due to COVID-19 precautions, experts say the pandemic likely has pushed more people onto the street. Cities are using state and federal pandemic funds to open new emergency housing, but demand continues to outpace supply.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, who has been a state leader in efforts to combat homelessness, last month proposed forcing his city to provide housing or shelter beds to homeless residents. The concept, known as a right to housing or a right to shelter, has been pushed in various state and local iterations — most recently as Assembly Bill 22, which died last year.
“Right now, housing is an option for the government and society to provide, and it’s an option for people to take if offered,” Steinberg said. “And I believe that housing is a necessity. Housing ought to be a legal right. And for those
few people who won’t avail themselves if it’s offered because of their own trauma or mental illness, coming inside should be required.”
Steinberg hopes to offer accommodations that allow residents to bring their pets, partners and possessions. Ideally, every person will be offered multiple choices. If they reject all offers, they will face civil penalties — but Steinberg isn’t sure yet what those will be.
Steinberg wants to have an ordinance drafted and voted on by the City Council within the next few months. The idea could spread from there. Los Angeles officials already are researching a similar proposal.
In San Jose, staffers are working on a policy that would prohibit encampments in certain areas. They’re starting by clearing camps that block streets and sidewalks within 150 feet of a school.
“We’re not just going to abate in response to complaints, because we’ve been doing that and it’s like whack-a-mole,” said Councilman Matt Mahan. “We’re just shuffling people around at great taxpayer expense and great hardship to our homeless community, and it’s not really improving quality of life for anyone.”
So far, the city has removed 121 tents, RVs and other structures under its new strategy. But without enough shelter beds for displaced residents, some encampments have come back and must be removed multiple times, which “continues to stress all parties involved,” according to a recent city memo.
For months in downtown San Rafael, a large tepees supported by 2-by4s and draped with colorful blankets and tapestries served as a gathering place for unhoused residents. The makeshift structure under the Highway 101 overpass was somewhere to pray, regroup, seek counsel from friends, or even play hangman and do craft projects, said its creator, 47-year-old unhoused artist Christal Gift. She was one of several dozen people living under the overpass in an encampment that ballooned in size during the pandemic. On Tuesday, Caltrans workers tore down the tepee and the rest of the camp, as a small, somber crowd looked on.
“They left us alone. It was like we were OK until COVID was over,” Gift said. “We’re not human no more.”
Calls for police and fire services have doubled in that area during the pandemic, according to Caltrans.
As the agency cleared the camp, displaced residents were offered space in a new sanctioned camp a block away — a collection of about 35 matching blue tents where residents have access to portable toilets, electricity to charge cellphones, security and case managers to help them find permanent housing. But residents had to leave treasures like their tepee behind and submit to a no guests policy.
Eric Tars, legal director of the National Homelessness
Law Center, worries about the potential ramifications as cities crack down on encampments. Anti-camping laws just push the problem from one street corner to another without solving anything, he said. Oakland passed an encampment management policy last year, but implementation has been slow due to a lack of enforcement resources and a dearth of shelter beds.
And while Tars supports a right to housing, he’s concerned Steinberg’s plan will force people to accept accommodations that don’t fit their needs.
“There’s a lot of hope that we could end up coming out better,” he said. “But there’s a lot of fear that we could end up coming out much worse.”